IS IT APPROPRIATE FOR A PASTOR TO RETIRE?

God’s calling is for a lifetime.

Let me first make my position clear. A called pastor is also employable, but it goes beyond that for him. There are two main areas in ministry: the office of a pastor as an employee of a church denomination and the calling of a pastor as God’s ambassador on earth. I am not talking about the first, where a pastor reaches a certain age or the retirement policy of the organization that employed him catches up with him. In that case, he is an employee first before being a pastor. That is not a pastoral calling. It is a pastoral employment. Every organizational employee needs to retire one day.

I am talking about a situation where a pastor abandons his pastoral calling because he or she has retired from his pastoral employment. A pastor who understands his calling knows that death is his only retirement from his assignment on earth. Life means the work is not yet over. With or without a job or salary from an organization such a pastor continues in active ministry in different forms.

Let me make this point very clear. Pastoral employment is different from pastoral calling. One relies on a basic structure to operate which includes a salary. The other doesn’t rely on a salary or other structural benefits. He focuses first on the fulfilment of his sacred calling whether there is an earthly benefit or not. Unfortunately, many retired pastors are frustrated probably because they don’t understand the difference between being an employee and being a called pastor. You may be out of the organization, but not out of services. “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2 NIV).

I wrote in my book, THE MEANINGFUL LIFE. “Those who are truly working in their areas of responsibility don’t retire as the end of the road but continue working in another form…. If a pastor retires from a form of service and someone visits him for advice in pastoral ministry, is it justifiable to call him a retired pastor? His form of service only changed…. You can rest for a while but don’t end the journey. You may not be active like before, either because of age or ill health, but don’t make yourself ineffective. Maintain your contributing ability no matter how small….” (Pusonnam Yiri, THE MEANINGFUL LIFE, Plateau state: Taskworkers Ventures, 2016, p. 198 & 199).

There are some encouraging lessons to learn from the comments of Caleb to Joshua. “Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said” (Joshua 14:10-12 NIV).

At the age of eighty-five, Caleb still wanted to do more. Age was not his barrier. He believed he was as strong at eighty-five as before. He also knew that he could not do it without the help of the Lord. What about you? Are you as daring as Caleb?

Pusonnan Yiri

(Theologian/ Entrepreneur)